CategorySyndication

July 23, 2019

Collecting Server Performance Metrics: Performance Monitor

By Bradley Schacht
9 Min read
5 comments
23July

Whether you’re a DBA/administrator looking to tune a server, planning for hardware updates, or looking to make a move to the cloud there are a few key performance metrics you’re going to want to collect. How do you know if the bottleneck is memory, disk or CPU? How do you know which of the Azure VM sizes to choose? The answer to these questions and other lies in the performance...

July 16, 2019

Rename Azure VM OS Disk

By Bradley Schacht
3 Min read
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16July

In a recent post about creating Azure VMs using PowerShell, I noted a common issue that I run into where the name of the OS disk does not conform to naming standards. The format for a VM OS disk when created using the Azure portal or when not otherwise specified through PowerShell is {VMName}_OsDisk_1_{UniqueIdentifier}. For most organizations that does not meet their naming standards. For me, in...

July 9, 2019

Create New Azure VM with PowerShell

By Bradley Schacht
5 Min read
5 comments
09July

Every so often I set out to create new resources in my Azure subscription using the command line tools (PowerShell or CLI) just to keep up to date on the changes and improvements in the different methods. While the Azure portal is a great GUI for creating virtual machines, it definitely leaves something to be desired from a customization standpoint. I’m fairly OCD about my environment and...

June 5, 2018

Bring Your Own Key to Azure SQL Database TDE New UI

By Bradley Schacht
3 Min read
1 comment
05June

In a recent post I wrote about a new functionality for Azure SQL Database’s TDE feature: Bring Your Own Key. At the time the only way to bring your own key was through PowerShell and T-SQL. Thankfully, that has changed. A recent update added a UI for managing your TDE keys using Azure Key Vault. Check out the quick, easy details below on setup and configuration. Before you start...

May 29, 2018

Azure PowerShell – List Virtual Machine Sizes

By Bradley Schacht
4 Min read
2 comments
29May

For those who use PowerShell to do things in Azure you will know that occasionally there is a parameter that you need to get right but are unsure of the exact value that should be there. In the Azure Portal it’s easy, you pick from a drop down menu where the required, pre-defined, values are and enter into the text box where it’s a free form value. Last week I wrote about using...

May 22, 2018

Azure PowerShell – List Data Center Locations

By Bradley Schacht
2 Min read
3 comments
22May

Occasionally I will come across the need to use PowerShell for my day to day activities. One such need came up this week when I was preparing to do training with a customer. Part of that meant creating 6 data science VMs. So we updated the software on a VM and went to clone it, ran into some issues and then decided to break out the PowerShell to fix the issue. For those who use PowerShell to do...

May 22, 2018

Bring Your Own Key to Azure SQL Database TDE

By Bradley Schacht
6 Min read
6 comments

I have previously written about using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) with Azure Key Vaule as a great way to store and manage encryption keys for SQL Server. With Azure SQL Database there has long been an option to enable TDE with just the click of a button. A lot of users I talk to say that is great, but they need to be able to manage the keys themselves. That could be for a variety of...

May 16, 2018

Webinar Followup: Overview of Azure Data Factory V2

By Bradley Schacht
5 Min read
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16May

About 3 weeks ago I presented a free webinar for Pragmatic Works where I talked about Azure Data Factory V2. You can watch the recording here if you missed it. In this follow-up I answer all the important questions that were posted to the Q&A pannel, like those related to the return of fun facts. If you have been tuning in for Pragmatic Works webinars for a long time you will remember fun...

April 25, 2018

State of the Cloud Database: April 2018

By Bradley Schacht
10 Min read
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25April

It’s an exciting time to be a database professional. The technology is advancing quickly, large datasets are easier to handle than ever before, and the cloud is opening up new functionality and use cases that we couldn’t tackle before. My fellow database professionals, I tell you today that the state of the cloud database is strong! Today we explore three of the platform as a service...

April 12, 2018

New Azure SQL Database Pricing Model

By Bradley Schacht
3 Min read
1 comment
12April

Azure SQL Database has some great built-in features that are included in the price like automatic backups, high availability, auditing and threat detection, transparent data encryption. No matter how excited people are when I talk to them about Azure SQL DB there is one topic that causes confusion. Every. Single. Time. That topic is sizing. “What the heck is that DTU thing and how many of...

Bradley Schacht

Bradley Schacht is a Principal Program Manager on the Microsoft Fabric product team based in Jacksonville, FL. Bradley is a former consultant, trainer, and has authored 5 SQL Server and Power BI books, most recently the Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide. As a member of the Microsoft Fabric product team, Bradley works directly with customers to solve some of their most complex data problems and helps shape the future of Microsoft Fabric. He frequently presents at community events around the country, is a contributor to sites such as SQLServerCentral.com, and is a member of the Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (JSSUG).

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